This is a post about nothing revolutionary… just two meals I’ve made lately that are EASY and involve seafood. First, salmon! It is my goal to cook salmon once a week. (We’ll see.) Today I was skimming an article on the Spanish Mediterranean Diet (from one of Chef José Andrés’ websites), and it really affirmed me in this meal:

Salmon w/Broccoli & Brown Rice

I think I tend towards Mediterranean ways in general… it’s probably the Greek in me. For this meal, I used organic broccoli, brown rice with NO added anything (so the rice took 45 minutes or so to cook), and Atlantic Salmon (thanks, Harris Teeter, for your half-price deal!). The salmon marinade consisted simply of garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, sea salt, and pepper… and I cooked the salmon in 5 minutes on our George Foreman. I finally watched Food Inc the other weekend, and it inspired me to eat as purely as possible!!

Of course, to balance out Food Inc, I suggest watching this. The other extreme… so funny. :)

The caption describes what’s going on here. The garlic and basil linguine is from Trader Joe’s (I love it, because it cooks in just around 5 minutes or so.). I made the spicy tomato sauce (really an “arrabiata sauce“) from tomato paste, water, and tons of different dried spices. I was going to put ground beef in the sauce for a standard meat sauce concoction, but Chris and I had just eaten Elevation Burger for lunch (YUM! And so in line with Food Inc… grass-fed, free range beef, and fries cooked in olive oil!), so we decided to go with fresh shrimp in the sauce instead. It was a lot lighter, but still filling. Delicious! :)

So we got back in town from Cape Cod Sunday night (a fun little getaway around a wedding!), and we were starving. It’s always such a nice surprise to open up the fridge and realize you have more unspoiled food than you thought! I love pasta dishes, because you can really throw in whatever you happen to have on hand. (Omelets are the same way.) I must say, pasta is sometimes my go-to carb. If I’m ever craving carbs, and have run out of all things salty and crunchy, I generally cook some pasta! Lather it up with some olive oil + sea salt, and I’m a happy camper. This probably isn’t any healthier than most carb snacks, but I like it. :)

Back to the meal. This is nothing fancy, but here is what I used in this EASY BREEZY and QUICK-to-make pasta dish: rotini, broccoli (cooked in the microwave, because I was tired!), goat cheese (later I realized I had some feta that might have been even more exciting! Oh well!), and homemade pesto (which I retrieved from the freezer! Thank you, Past Jacqueline, for thinking to make a lot of pesto!).

Pesto Pasta with Goat Cheese & Broccoli!

Like I pleaded with you last month, make your own pesto! It’s easy, and you’ll never want to buy it again! Yum, yum. :)

I haven’t been cooking a lot this week. We were out of town in Blacksburg last weekend, and let me just say that if you ever are in Blacksburg, you MUST go to Gillie’s for breakfast. I love everything on the menu, but usually order the Red Earth (homemade salsa on top of scrambled eggs on top of potatoes!). I need to recreate that sometime. Anyway, this week has just been a busier one of leftovers, eating at Panera, eating at National’s Park, etc! By the way, we totally missed these new vendors at the stadium. That’s okay, Ben’s Chili Bowl is still pretty exciting.

I did want to share one of my favorite easy and quick veggie meals. I consider myself a flexitarian (yes, that word is for real!), so I love eating vegetarian whenever I can. Here is a recipe for goat cheese and asparagus quesadillas… and I always add mushrooms!

Asparagus, Goat Cheese, and Mushroom Quesadillas

I’m starting to wonder if I only eat the same ingredients all the time? I do love asparagus, goat cheese, and mushrooms. :) You can make these in a pan on the stove, but I’ve started using our little George Foreman grill instead.

I’m making a Mexican casserole this weekend for our friends who just had a baby, and then we’re having a couple over for Mexican food on Monday… so those are my next cooking adventures!